Professor Kempner uses multiple methods to investigate science and health policy in a variety of areas, including pain medicine, pharmaceutical advertising practices, science and health policy, and “forbidden knowledge.” She is currently writing a book on the sociology of headache medicine that examines the gendered social values embedded in the way we talk about, understand, and make policies for people in pain. She has also written about the suppression of science, including articles on how political controversies generated by health research shape scientific research agendas. Prior to joining the department, Professor Kempner was a postdoctoral fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Research Program at the University of Michigan from 2004-2006. She was also a Research Associate at the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University. Her research appears in peer-reviewed sociology and medical journals including Science, Social Science & Medicine and Gender & Society.

(Sections on Medical Sociology, the Body, Sex and Gender, and Science, Knowledge and Technology)

Sociologists for Women in Society Eastern Sociological Society

WGS Statement on Academia and Free Speech Rights

It is inherent to the discipline of Women's Studies to deal with complex subjects through theoretical lenses, which question conventional knowledge production. This department, one of the most distinguished departments of WGS in the country, has a highly visible faculty of national and international reputation invited to speak in various fora on sometimes highly controversial subjects. Such faculty members, as scholars, have not only a right, but also an obligation to produce and disseminate knowledge within and beyond the academy. Moreover, as private citizens, our faculty continue to enjoy the same freedoms of speech and expression as any private citizen and in accordance with university policy the department supports their protection from institutional discipline in the exercise of these academic and free speech rights.